June 11th, 2014

It would be outstanding if it would be so simple to improve one’s marriage just by itemizing “10 do it yourself fix it solutions”. However, based on my experiences with couples, I have seen some common threads that can be utilized to help any marriage gain a positive momentum assuming that the spouses are not suffering from severe mental and or personality disorders. That is a different venue altogether. Couples have a tendenc …
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Introduction The purpose of this article is to recommend strategies for social workers to deal with attachment problems in adoptive families (adoptive parents and adopted children). Forming a strong bond is one of the most important challenges for an adoptive parent and an adoptive child. Two to four percent of families in America include an adopted child (van den Dries et al., 2009). When adoptive parents adopt a child, the process of attachme …
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Author: Elizabeth Carmen, MHC

November 14th, 2014

I’m going to take the risk of being blunt and ask, I wonder how many girls have been told they aren’t good enough because of their weight. From personal experience in the Jewish community, I know that this happens to plenty of young women, but I don’t think it’s unique to that community. Young women and even young girls are being sent this message- both directly and indirectly- all the time, whether it’s about findin …
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Author: Dvorah Levy, LCSW

May 28th, 2014

Ideally, for a couple to work on their marriage, it is best to have both partners come in to therapy. Unfortunately though, that doesn’t always happen. Many times one spouse cannot convince his/her partner to join him/her, and that’s when one partner ends up in my office alone. What happens then? Can couple therapy actually work with just one partner? Sara felt very criticized by her husband. He tended to point out the very thing that …
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Author: Audrey Grazi, LCSW

June 11th, 2014

As a graduate social work student in 2008, my vision for helping people was exhilarating and somewhat idealistic. My favorite part of the school semester was going to the NYU bookstore to purchase the required books for my classes and browse through some of the other sections to see what the future would bring for the other courses that would be coming my way. I didn’t know what to expect from the group therapy course I was about to begin, …
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Author: Sara Teichman, Psy.D.

November 26th, 2014

Are you the cool mom? The mom who is young in attitude, spirit, and dress? Can you be mistaken for your teenager’s sister? Have you succumbed to the allure of Forever 21 or are you striving to win points in your teen’s eyes? Well, here’s the thing. Despite well-intentioned efforts to keep up with the times, many a daughter still sees her mom as irrelevant. Being young at heart, it seems, does not bridge the generation gap. There …
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Author: Linda Kalman, M.A., M.S.W., P.S.W.

August 6th, 2014

 The stigma of mental illness is alive and well, and kicking....hard. Recently, an able-functioning client told me that when she tried to seek care for her mental health needs, the resource staff seemed almost afraid of her. It wasn't the first time she had experienced this. And sadly, it wasn't the first time I had heard it. In fact, many years ago, I personally saw the reticence (disdain?) in some of the professionals I met, as I attempted …
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Author: Ovadia Trepp, MSW, LCSW

October 8th, 2014

For the purpose of this article we will be discussing two types of problem that impact marriages – couple problems and individual problems, and two types of therapy – marital and individual. Like the handyman who needs to know the details of a job before deciding upon the right set of tools to bring along, it's helpful to recognize the type of marital issue you are facing when choosing one type of therapy over another. So what is a co …
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Video of Dr. Michael Jenike talking about OCD
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Author: Marlene Greenspan, MA, LPC

November 26th, 2014

From anxiety to trauma, fear is a feeling of many colors. Colors and musical notes have a certain resonance or intensity that may vary with the emotion the artist wants to evoke. Feelings are emotions and also have stronger or weaker intensities, depending on the way a person is expressing those feelings inwardly or outwardly. Fear may begin with a mild feeling of worry or concern about someone or something that can escalate to the vibrancy of p …
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